Browsing by Author "Dunderberg, Olga"

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, plays a central role within the institutional framework of the European Union’s (EU) migration management. The agency has faced enduring criticism since its establishment in 2004. Criticism has particularly focused on the role of Frontex in the securitisation of migration in the EU, meaning the construction of migration and migrants as security threats. While Frontex has been researched extensively, its organisational communication practices have received less attention. This thesis poses two questions regarding the themes in Frontex’s organisational communication and the extent of securitised constructions of migration in the agency’s recent news releases. First, how do the themes of Frontex news releases reflect the agency’s organisational identity and strategic use of communication? Second, to what extent do the themes in Frontex’s organisational communication contribute to a securitised conceptualisation of migration? Theories of strategic communication and migration governance provide the broad context for examining the agency’s communication practices, organisational identity, and role within EU migration governance. Building on previous debates and literature on securitisation theories, this thesis applies a practice-oriented approach to analyse Frontex news releases. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis are applied to examine themes present in Frontex news releases to fill a methodological gap. As past literature has established Frontex as furthering the securitisation of migration, this research examines whether this applies to the agency’s strategic communication practices. The findings indicate that Frontex aims to present itself as an organisation focusing mainly on cooperation and fighting crime. Other frequent themes in news releases relate to staff and training, organisational activities, and border updates. Further qualitative content analysis suggests that Frontex strategically uses securitised constructions of migration management to legitimise organisational existence and expansion. Security, then, is conceptualised as something broad that requires constant enhancement in the EU. Promoting securitised themes entails facilitating an image of border-crossing and migrants as suspect which aims to necessitate constant preparedness. The broad conceptualisation of security and constant need for enhancement indicate a growing definition of security which exemplifies the spiralling of securitisation as the expansion of security issues and topics. Moreover, strategies of prevention and deterrence are evident through analyses of Frontex news releases whereas fundamental rights are downplayed.